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Credits
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Summary
Chouchou, a young North African, arrives in Paris disguised as a Chilean immigrant.
A kind parish priest, Father Léon, offers him shelter and finds him a job, as house
cleaner for the psychiatrist Dr Milovavovich. The latter is the first to discover
Chouchou’s true nature - that he is a gay transvestite - and allows him to work for her
dressed as a woman. At night, Chouchou works as a waitress in a nightclub,
where he meets Mr Right in the form of Stanislas de la Tour-Maubourg. Everything
seems to be going well for Chouchou - until he ends up on the wrong side of one of Milovavovich’s
patients - an unhinged and rather nasty police inspector...
Review
Actor and comedian Gad Elmaleh confirms himself as one of France’s leading performers
in this outrageous, high-energy comic farce. The film is based on a one-man show
which the Moroccan born actor wrote and acted on stage, re-worked by writer-director Merzak
Allouache. Part fairy tale, part fantasy, part love story, part thriller, Chouchou
is a film that defies classification. Perhaps the best way to describe it is
an outlandish farce intended to showcase the unexpected talent of its lead actor.
And what a talent.
Gad Elmaleh is a charismatic young actor who has come to prominence in French cinema over the past decade, appearing in supporting roles in popular comedies, notably La vérité si je mens 2. Over this period, he has acquired a cult following and has shown his versatility in a diverse range of comic and serious dramatic roles. Chouchou is (and is likely to remain for some time) his pièce de résistance, a role to which he brings not just an extraordinary comic flair but also great humanity and affection. Think what you may of the film, but you cannot help falling for the charms of its principal character as portrayed by Gad Elmaleh. Elmaleh’s presence in the film is so strong that you scarcely notice his extraordinary supporting cast. The participation of stars such as Catherine Frot, Claude Brasseur, Alain Chabat and Micheline Presle is almost superfluous, although such high class "window dressing" does give the film more bite than it would otherwise have had. The only supporting actor to come anywhere near to sharing Elmaleh’s limelight is the excellent Roschdy Zem who, bespectacled and decked out in sandals and short trousers, is - oddly - far less recognisable than the cross-dressing Elmaleh. Although Zem’s character in the film is frankly ridiculous - a drug-taking priest who is visited by ghostly hallucinations of the Virgin Mary - his dialogue with Elmaleh is one of the most endearing aspects of the films. The least that is said about the plot the better. Things start out reasonably well with Chouchou’s arrival in Paris and his settling into his new lifestyle. Then, around the film’s mid-point, it all goes slightly off the rails and ends up something of a confused mess. The sub-plot of Chouchou and the mad, bad and distinctly sad police inspector comes close to ruining the film and can only be justified by the fact that it give the film its funniest moment (Chouchou catapulted head-first through a car wash). The sequences with Alain Chabat are also mildly ridiculous and feel painfully stereotyped. A more cynical reviewer would summarise the film as: boy meets boy and they live happily every after. Such a plot is the kind of sentimental drivel which has become de rigueur on the other side of the Atlantic (excluding those "films" which are 99% computer generated shite) but which is mercifully rare in French cinema. Fortunately, the film’s unconventional set up (which, to its credit, celebrates the glorious multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-sexual nature of our society à la folie) manages to counter the natural urge to reach out for the sick bucket. For all its sins - and it does commit a fair number - Chouchou is a film which it is genuinely hard to dislike. Despite the abundant clichés, absurd plot and ending so cheesy that you can smell the Camembert from a mile, it is made with such fun and sincerity that you cannot help laughing out loud at the innumerable scripted jokes and comic situations. Thanks to Gad Elmaleh’s Hell for leather contribution - which certainly merits the César the actor was nominated for but failed to get - Chouchou is very likely to end up a cult classic of French cinema. It's not a masterpiece, but it is a very funny film. © James Travers 2004 Write a review for this film... |
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